Deterrence process is just abhorrent

The Manus Island tragedy exposes the dark consequences of the Abbott government's version of the US ''rendition'' process, whereby suspected terrorists - read criminalised refugees in Australia's case - are outsourced to nations with poor ''human rights'' records, beyond judicial oversight. The PNG government is, effectively, acting as a negligent overseer employing police units known for their brutality; yet Scott Morrison, in his mission to intimidate asylum seekers, appears to see such a situation as tolerable. The moral squalor of this deterrence process surely has no precedence in Australian diplomatic history.

Turkey: population 80 million; GDP per capita 2013, $15,263 (world's 66th richest country). Refugees accepted since 2011: 750,000. Attitude to facilities for refugees, as explained by a camp administrator: ''We just put ourselves in their shoes. We need internet. We need barbershops. We need workshops. We need art. What we need as Turks, we give them.'' He shrugged as though this were totally obvious. ''We're humans.'' (''How to Build a Perfect Refugee Camp'', The New York Times, 13/2).

Australia: population 23 million; GDP per capita $43,042 (world's 10th richest country). Asylum seekers arriving by boat since 2010: fewer than 30,000. Australian government's attitude: we'll make it so difficult to get here that most will fail. If any succeed, they will not be permitted to enter Australia and we will outsource their care to countries without the resources or facilities to provide adequate support or expeditious processing. If we keep all the details from the Australian people, we can all pretend they don't exist. It makes me ashamed.

Ray Turner, Hoddles Creek

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Harming our good reputation

Immigration minister Scott Morrison says the riot at Manus Island detention centre has not damaged infrastructure. Great. What it has damaged, Mr Morrison, is the international reputation of Australia, once admired as the land of the fair go.

Pat Coe, Hawthorn

Face up to our responsibilities

How many more deaths will it take before we cease abrogating our responsibilities to refugees by sending them away from Australia? They could be better looked after here, and at significantly less cost. Imprisoning innocent people in diabolical conditions and removing hope will inevitably result in more riots and deaths. This policy bastardry in our name must stop.

Geoff Phillips, Wonga Park

ABC, it's all your fault

The unpatriotic ABC is at it again with its coverage of the Manus Island riots. Why cannot the ABC understand and support the principle underlying the government's approach to asylum seekers: if a tree falls in the forest, and no one hears it, it hasn't happened. The ABC needs to understand its role in the Manus Island riots. The ''illegals'' only riot because they know the ABC will provide national coverage. If the ABC didn't cover the riots, people wouldn't riot. In effect, the ABC is actually causing the riots. The coverage has a second effect. It forces Immigration Minister Scott Morrison to come out from his cone of silence. When the minister does this, he continues to demonstrate that Australia's asylum seeker policy is at best ill-advised and at worst inhumane. Why does the ABC continue to expose a minister to such ridicule? It's time for the ABC to go in to bat for the home side, even if this is the equivalent of facing Mitch Johnson, bowling downwind, armed only with a fly swat.

Tim Haslett, Richmond

Renaissance calling

When my family moved to Geelong in 1954, there were thriving factories producing quality products from Corio to the Barwon River and beyond. The Shell refinery had just begun operations. The Pivot turned out tons of superphosphate. Ford made cars and International Harvester made farm machinery. Pilkingtons made glass. Classweave made textiles as did numerous woollen mills on the banks of the Barwon. Alcoa joined the thriving manufacturing centre in 1963.

Small businesses making everything from car components and small machinery but also shoes, clothing and processed food, lined major roads and suburban streets. There was no university as yet, but we had and still have the Gordon institute.

There were plenty of opportunities for boys to do apprenticeships and other training. However, it was not a workers' paradise for everyone. For those desiring different careers, and especially for girls, things were more limited and often involved commuting or moving to Melbourne. It was sad over the years to see the factories gradually close. Alcoa is the latest to follow this lamentable trend.

What is the answer to Geelong's woes? Will our flamboyant mayor inspire a renaissance?

Jeannette Johanson,

North Geelong

Flexible with facts

The government, through Treasurer Hockey and Industry Minister Macfarlane, is again using the ''big bad carbon tax'', contending that it is to blame for the Alcoa shutdown. This is despite Alcoa saying the tax is not to blame and that it received a 94.5 per cent exemption from its carbon tax liability (''Carbon tax not to blame, says Alcoa'', 19/2). Why must we put up with a litany of misrepresentations of the truth from this government?

Greg Sturges, Maiden Gully

Size counts

If the Alcoa plant is not closing because of the carbon tax, the tax must have been too low. One of the best results you would want from an effective carbon tax is the closure of energy-guzzling aluminium plants fuelled from brown coal. Jobs woes are an inevitable hurdle to environmental sustainability, which is why neither of the main political parties wants to go there.

Graham Patterson, Briar Hill

A knock to the left

Rumours that the age of entitlement has ended and that corporate and middle-class welfare are dead have been greatly exaggerated. Despite its rhetoric, the Abbott government believes that some sectors of society remain ''entitled''. Miners and farmers remain entitled to diesel fuel rebates, property investors are entitled to negative gearing, and future mothers will be entitled to a ludicrously generous paid parental leave scheme. Cadbury and Qantas are entitled but not car makers or SPC. Multinationals that shift their income and costs around the globe are entitled to pay less than their fair share of tax in Australia. No, the age of entitlement is not dead, it has just suffered a few flesh wounds, all down the ''left'' side.

Rod Williams, Surrey Hills

Change the game

Politicians who, after retirement, are granted plum appointments overseas add to the reasons the average voter is disillusioned with our politicians' behaviour (''Plum post for Downer'', 18/2). Are these selected few the best talent available to represent Australian interests in London or New York? If they are, why not drop them into critical posts, such as Afghanistan or Yemen, where they could really turn the game around.

Ian Hetherington, Moama

Funny one

Note on PM's contact website: ''The Hon. Tony Abbott, MP, leads an accountable and open government that welcomes your views and feedback. You can ask the Prime Minister a question, give advice and pass on well-wishes here.'' I reckon it belongs in the ''Odd Spot''.

Greg Oates, Huon Creek

Dangerous precedent

The freedoms enjoyed by citizens in democracies can be found largely in the principle of separation of powers, whereby potential tyranny is kept at bay by the executive, legislature and judiciary acting separately. To pass a law aimed at keeping a specific person, such as Julian Knight, in prison sets a dangerous precedent (''Bill to curb freedom 'open to challenge''', 19/2). If the majority of members of Parliament want to jail you or keep you in jail, they only need to pass the necessary legislation. John Silvester (''The case for Julian Knight legislation'', 19/2) states that authorities denied Knight access to programs that may have increased his chances of release. Do these authorities have the right to make this judgment after a judge has set a minimum sentence?

The despicable Julian Knight may only live another 20 or 30 years. We may pay for a corrupted legal system for a lot longer.

Tony Devereux, Nunawading

You can do it yourself

The proposed relaxing of standards to financial advice is indeed a disaster waiting to happen (Letters, 19/2). As a self-employed person, I remember the bad days when my superannuation was either static or moving backwards. My financial planner insisted on moving me at regular intervals into different funds, each transaction incurring an exit fee and entrance fee into the new fund. An investigation revealed that my planner was using my funds to enhance his own fund. Not only was he charging me an up-front percentage fee, he was also receiving a trailing fee. Bad enough, but the various funds were also rewarding him and his wife with an annual holiday in Bali.

Fortunately, I woke up in time, closed my account, and set up a self-managed fund that has allowed me to retire with some security. No one has more respect for or interest in your financial future than you do yourself. Any responsible person can, with a minimum of professional help, take control of their own financial affairs. Financial planners represent the most rapacious sector of the financial industry.

Lance Sterling, Burwood

Freeing up thought

Marguerite Marshall (Letters, 18/2) is naive in her assertion that religious faith was influential in the work of Newton, Galileo, Darwin etc. These men may have had faith, but their achievements were accomplished in spite of the church. In many cases, free thinkers were hounded and persecuted, sometimes to their deaths. It took a secular society to teach the church how to accommodate free thinking.

David Golightly, Clunes

In the beholder's eye

Bettina Arndt's ''Love across the ages'' (Focus, 18/2) was enthralling, but it might have made a better job of distinguishing between stereotypes and the reality of variability. For example, the woman who said: ''Men want a woman who wears heels. When I tower over a gentleman it doesn't feel right.'' Well, every time I have checked I have still been a man, but I have loathed high heels since childhood, and still do. And I could not care less if I tower over a woman or she towers over me. A few years ago, I was solemnly informed that ''women'' do not like men with beards. If this claim were universally true, Sikhs and Jews would have died out centuries ago, and 19th-century celebrities such as Giuseppe Garibaldi would not have received fan mail asking for combings from their beards.

In the real world, what is attractive to one person may be repulsive and ''naff'' to another. Body piercings, tattoos, underarm hair, and women in stockings and suspender belts are cases in point.

Nigel Sinnott, Sunshine West

A bigger contribution

Mark Contos (Letters, 19/2) underestimates the direct contribution of the Victorian Coalition government to public transport. It is not ''40 to 50 per cent''. The government provides about 65 per cent of the operating cost of metropolitan public transport and 75 per cent for V/Line.

Terry Mulder, Minister for Public Transport and Roads

Stop the verbifying

Attention all commentators at Channel 10's Olympics coverage. The word ''medal'' is a noun, not a verb. Therefore, it is as incorrect to describe an athlete as ''medalling'' or ''podiuming'' in an event as it would be to say they ''carred'' it to training. They drove to training in the hope they would one day win a medal and stand atop a podium. Try to correctly use the language we've all agreed upon, or leave commentary to those who can.

Nicholas Langdon, Doncaster

Unnatural habitat

I tend to prefer the possums to the dogs. I opened my door looking over the park and saw seven sets of eyes looking back at me. Dogs used to have natural predators such as snakes, big wildcats and eagles, to keep the populations numbers down. Now we provide comfortable habitations for them in our suburbs, where once they were priced for their pelts.

Paul Wells, Preston

And another thing...

Manus Island

Oh no, terrible news from the UN for Information Minister Manus Morrison: Michael Kirby has a great big spotlight - and he knows how to use it.

Stephen Jeffery, Sandy Bay, Tas

''Transferees'' is the latest euphemism used by the Immigration Minister to describe asylum seekers. Where to and when are they being transferred?

Ruth Boschen, Balwyn

Tony Abbott suggests the people detained on Manus Island should not take advantage of our generosity. Is he having a larf?